NGO Report: ‘Pakistan’s Government Must Protect Religious Minorities’

“Pakistan’s government did little in 2014 to stop the rising toll of killings and repression by extremists groups that target religious minorities,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at NGO Human Rights Watch, in the organization’s recently released 2015 international report.

According to Fides, Kine stated: “The government is failing at the most basic duty of government to protect the safety of its citizens and enforce rule of law.”

Pakistan’s government, the annual report noted, should ensure the security of the country’s religious minorities from judicial injustice and attacks by militants.

Its text also stated that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has failed to ensure protection for religious freedoms.

According to data in the text, sectarian violence in 2014 in Karachi caused more than 750 targeted killings.

Abuses against women and girls, including rape, murder through so-called honor killings, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage, remained common in 2014. In July, in the Balochistan province, religious extremists committed a series of acid attacks on women.

“Every year,” the report states, “at least 1,000 girls belonging to the Christian and Hindu community are forced to marry Muslim men.”

Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Founded in 1978, the NGO has divisions around the world in almost every continent.